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AUDIO: Health journalists speak at NUJ Reporting Health event

Last night Help Me Investigate attended the NUJ’s event on reporting the new health system. Panelists John Lister (Coventry University), Shaun Lintern (Health Service Journal) and Branwen Jeffreys (BBC) spoke in turn about how the new health system is structured (as best can be told); how to report on the new system; and the possible problems and opportunities within that.

John Lister‘s introductory talk explored the structure of the health service, from CCGs and the new NHS England (formerly the Commissioning Board) to the lack of clarity over the position of commissioning support units (CSU) and Local Area Teams (LAT). Slides from his presentation will appear later on the European Health Journalism site.

Shaun Lintern then spoke about his own experiences of reporting the Mid-Staffs story and his concerns over journalists’ ability to report health stories in the context of increasing pressures and reduced staff.

Branwen Jeffreys identified the issues she expected to come up in health and health reporting, including the inability to compare across time periods and nations, the less vocal character of GPs, and the increasingly vocal character of hospital staff.

I did not record my own contribution to the panel, but hope to publish some posts later.

About Paul Bradshaw

Founder of Help Me Investigate. I'm a visiting professor at City University London's School of Journalism, and run an MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University. I publish the Online Journalism Blog, and am the co-author of the Online Journalism Handbook and Magazine Editing (3rd edition). I have a particular interest in Freedom of Information and data journalism.